MIT researchers at its SENSEable City Laboratory have unveiled a project in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city’s cyclists. The project, called SmartBiking, will utilize a novel self-organizing smart-tag system that will allow the city’s residents to exchange basic information and share their relative positioning with each other.

As part of the project, a prototype of a smart bicycle is being developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab’s Smart Cities Group. This hybrid bicycle harvests the energy created when braking and releases it while cycling. All hybrid-drive elements, including the battery, are packed in the rear wheel, which becomes a self-contained component that could be retrofitted on most existing bicycles.

A considerable fraction of [Copenhagen’s] energy comes from renewable sources and, unlike a few decades ago, 30 to 40 percent of its citizens use bicycles as their primary method of transportation. So our challenge was, ‘How can we enhance these dynamics of sustainability? And how can we use technology to make them more widespread?’
—Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, which is overseeing the Smart Biking project

Honda has opened a new "Words of Hybrid" site, featuring the all-new Insight Concept premiered at the Paris Motor Show on October 2, 2008. The site provides details of the Insight Concept and a history of Honda's hybrid development.

While it may be a bit early to plunk down a deposit, expect to see Smart brings its new fortwo ED to the United States, possibly as soon as late 2009. With a hybrid-electric Mercedes also up his sleeve, Daimler's chief confirmed to PM that the electrified Smart car was headed across the pond—and that it's just a matter of time.

The ED, short for electric drive, is Smart's new battery car, which can deliver up to 150 miles on an overnight charge of its lithium-ion battery pack. It joins an expanding line-up of high-mileage powertrains offered by the Mercedes-Benz sibling division, an assortment that also includes diesel and the new Micro Hybrid Drive, or MHD system—all of which PM recently test drove here across the pond after the fortwo's decidedly slow start.

"Electrifying cars is one option for safer, sustainable mobility," declared Thomas Weber, technology chief for parent company Daimler AG.

Vancouver city council voted Tuesday afternoon to give a green light to low-speed electric vehicles.

Under city bylaws, they will now be able to travel on Vancouver streets which have a posted speed limit of 50 km per hour or less, meaning they will be able to travel on most city streets.

But staff remained concerned about the safety of the vehicles since they don't meet the crash standards for regular vehicles. They are typically larger than electric golf carts and look more like small compact cars.

Most low-speed electric cars, however, don't have impact absorbing bumpers or airbags, according assistant city engineer Jerry Dobrovolny, making them a case of buyer beware.

"That's why the federal government limits their operation to 40 kilometres [per hour] or less. And so that's a decision that each individual buyer will make for themselves," said Dobrovolny.

In the United States, sales of hybrid cars greatly outpaces the sales of diesel cars; super-size trucks don't count. The leader of the hybrid race globally and in the States is undoubtedly Toyota, but other manufacturers, including Honda, are doing their best to catch up. Despite the fact that the original Honda Insight helped usher in the hybrid age, the automaker has taken a major back seat to its main rival from Japan in recent years. To help combat this issue, Honda is set to revive the Insight nameplate with a Prius-fighting five door hatchback of its own, and it will undercut its competitor by thousands of dollars.

So, what about Europe? Across the pond, hybrid cars and trucks are not nearly as popular as they are in the U.S. There, diesel fuel is priced more attractively than gasoline, and sales of oil-burners are therefore very strong. A recent survey conducted by Honda in the U.K. indicates that 40-percent of those who would not buy a hybrid are put off by their high price. Since the Insight will be the cheapest hybrid available in Europe, Honda hopes to buck the slow-selling trend. We'll see how it works out sometime next year.

For those of you who had been hoping to get your hands on a new 2008 Zero X electric motorcycle, we have some bad news. They are all sold out. Now, the good news is that a new revised-for-'09 model will be making its first appearance at the Alt Car Expo in Santa Monica, California, on September 26-27. Of course, we'll be there, on the lookout for all the coolest greenery at the show. We'll need to wait until then to find out what changes have been made, but the press release after the break makes it sound like a thorough upgrade with changes to the frame, suspension, brakes and electric drivetrain. Specs indicate 23-horsepower and just 145-pounds to move around, plus rider. That should get things going pretty briskly. Want one? Don't worry, the new bike is scheduled to begin shipping next month, so the wait shouldn't be too terribly long.